So, now we know. The great and the good, from President Obama downwards, have spoken.

They variously claim, if we leave the European Union, bang goes security, we will no longer speak for the US in Europe, the economy will nosedive, there will be no cheap air fares, financial stability will be impaired, exports will fall, and there won't be European co-operation with UK police forces.

We won't have trading agreements, extradition will cease, we will be isolated, the financial sector will suffer, house prices will fall, unemployment will rise, national income will fall, productivity will plummet even more and the dastardly French will be vindictive.

Even assuming all this is true, what about freedom? The historical evidence shows bureaucracy begets more bureaucracy, that bureaucracies always succumb to corruption (the EU cannot even provide audited accounts), that they always put their own bureaucratic interests first, that they are not accountable, that they are largely above the law even to the extent of some bureaucrats avoiding personal income tax, that they bully, that they are hugely incompetent and wasteful and, most of all, that they inevitably become utopian and totalitarian.

Totalitarian states have always depended on bureaucrats and bureaucracy as the utopian EU does.

In 1940, Britain stood alone in defence of freedom. Whatever the great and good may say, we should not now ignore threats to freedom in 2016, or the need to again stand alone. After all, from Blair downwards, they favoured joining the Euro and that would have been a monumental disaster. If they guessed wrong then, why should we assume they are right in their wild guesses and forecasts now - particularly in light of their abysmal track records?